'The Professional Parent' Review: An Oscar-Qualifying Short Film On Hard Truths In Slovakia

Alex Leptos
11 hours ago
4 min read

Poster for 'The Professional Parent' by writer/director Erik Jasaň. — Poster for *The Professional Parent*

The inspiration for The Professional Parent came from a visit I made to an orphanage in eastern Slovakia, where I was deeply moved by the stories of several Roma children placed in the care of “professional parents.” In Slovakia, professional parenting is not just a vocation but a paid occupation. Unfortunately, in some of the more underdeveloped regions, especially in eastern Slovakia, the role of a professional parent is often sought primarily for financial gain. This system, driven by economic necessity, sometimes leads to a troubling dynamic where the number of children directly correlates to the level of financial benefit.

-Erik Jasaň (writer/director)

Ela Lehotská in The Professional Parent by Erik Jasaň. — **Ela Lehotská** is Ingrid- a single mother who becomes a "professional parent" for a young Romani girl.

With a dreary, muted colour palette and ominous mood, The Professional Parent pulls you into its Slovakian setting of poverty and struggle, where racial division is not only present but forefronted. Prejudice toward Roma people in Slovakia is a well-documented, long-standing social problem, and director Erik Jasaň looks to tackle this head-on whilst exposing a foster-care system that feeds it, and often bears little benefit to the children involved.

This Oscar-qualifying short film begins by introducing us to Ingrid, played by Ela Lehotská, a single mother working a cashier job who is struggling to make ends meet. She turns to sex work when the sun goes down to aid her financial situation and care for her ailing daughter, with whom her interactions are loving and tender.

She gets the opportunity to become a “professional parent”- a paid foster caregiver employed by the state or a child-protection agency. She appears relatively genuine outside of her desperation, but it is with her newfound responsibility towards a young Roma girl that that desperation reveals the cracks in her morality. Her treatment of Samantha is stark in contrast to that of her own daughter, brought on by the unfair treatment of the Roma people in the environment that has shaped her worldview.

Drawing from the experiences of his sister, who was a professional parent, as well as the 2015 murder of a one-year-old Roma girl by her professional father in Slovakia, Jasaň looks to shine a light on a broken system of care-giving and the ethical questions it inevitably raises. The film offers an unflinching dissection at how efforts to address social problems can exploit vulnerable people and reveal uncomfortable truths about those who are meant to help them. The Professional Parent so effectively conveys the unsettling indifference of the world surrounding these issues and reminds us that things are rarely black and white- but far more often a shade of grey.

The Professional Parent by Erik Jasaň takes place in Slovakia. — The film uses a dark and dreary colour palette to aid its mood and atmosphere.

Not only is The Professional Parent impressive thematically and visually but technically also. The film is made up of only 12 long shots during its 14-minute runtime- each one drawing us closer and more intimately into Ingrid’s life as if we were a fly on the wall in an almost documentary-style fashion, with the muted palette aiding its visual realism. It achieves both an emotional and thematic depth that make it feel like a feature-length production and by its end, leaves a desire for its continuation.

The Professional Parent feels like an opener to something much larger, and in a sense- it is. It’s an introduction to an ongoing real-life issue- one that extends far beyond any filmic borders and that Erik Jasaň urges us not to ignore.

About the filmmaker

'The Professional Parent' writer/director Erik Jasaň. — Writer/director Erik Jasaň.

Erik Jasaň is a Slovak director, screenwriter, and producer whose work addresses sensitive social issues. His debut The Professional Parent is qualified for the 98th OSCARS in the LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM category.

The film received an Honorable Mention at the OSCAR®-qualifying 44th Thomas Edison Film Festival and was selected by multiple OSCAR®-qualifying festivals including the 50th ODENSE FF, 23rd TIRANA IFF, 53rd HUESCA FF, 41st ST KILDA FF, 20th HOLLYSHORTS FF, 17th BALINALE, 24th LEBU IFF, and 11th ALEXANDRIA SFF.

As a non-film school student, he directed several short films and supported fellow filmmakers, creating student films under his direction that were included in official selections qualifying for the AMERICAN OSCARS, the 37th OUT ON FILM: ATLANTA'S LGBTQ FF, and the 8th BENGALURU ISFF.

With his new project THREE BURNED BODIES, he won the Pitching Forum at the 21st FEST – New Directors/New Film Festival in Espinho, Portugal, and was nominated by the Czech Film Center to represent the Czech Republic at Euro Connection, which will be part of the 47th Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.